The Rule of Luck

September 18, 2017
Being lucky means never having to say you’re sorry in this sexy science fiction romance debut. Nairobi resident Felicia Sevigny lives on a near-future Earth where melted ice caps have led to flooded coasts and the centers of power are now located in Kenya and Brazil. She tells fortunes with a tarot deck inherited (over family objections) from her Romani great-grandmother. While trying to maneuver around being blocked by the world government from getting approval for pregnancy, she is swept up by Alexei Petriv, the wildly attractive heir apparent to the exiled Russian mafia, and tossed into a power struggle over human progress. Jetting around the world, Felicia confronts her hereditary ability to foretell danger, which stems from a gene that her missing mother researched and that Alexei wants to control. There’s a strong whiff of dominance and submission in Felicia’s relationships, accompanied by vivid romance; Felicia and Alexei are clearly consumed by both emotional and physical passion. Cerveny includes a variety of typical futuristic elements, such as remote-control bodies, life extension, space elevators, clones, teleportation, and flying cars, that will entirely satisfy fans of pulpy SF. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency.

September 15, 2017
In the year 2950, Romani tarot card reader Felicia Sevigny discovers she's at the heart of a sinister plot to manipulate human genetics in Cerveny's debut.Hundreds of years in the future, mankind has survived floods, multiple world wars, and "Dark Times" to integrate computers into human bodies, sustain colonies on both Mars and Venus, and invent "Renew treatments," which dramatically slow aging. Felicia has a comfortable life reading tarot cards and is considering having a baby with her boyfriend, Roy. But for some reason, Shared Hope, the government program controlling reproduction, has blacklisted her from having a child, so she enlists the help of the mysterious Mr. Pennyworth to help her cheat the system. Just when it looks like Felicia has bitten off more than she can chew, Russian mob boss Alexei Petriv saves her and requests her tarot reading skills. But Felicia suspects there is more to Alexei than meets the eye (though what meets the eye is more than pleasing), and she soon learns that the same can be said of her own life. Cerveny's world is noteworthy for its realistic balance. Her future, where everyone has access to age-halting technology but political turmoil still abounds, feels both familiar and intriguing. The romance is key to the plot, but it's leaned on too heavily. The narrative justifies the intense heat between Alexei and Felicia, but even if you take the misogynistic elements out of a Christian Grey--type fellow, slathering on the smolder doesn't make up for a missing personality in your plucky heroine's love interest. A well-crafted world with a promising heroine, but hopefully the sequels will spend less time describing the love interest's blue eyes.

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Starred review from November 1, 2017
In the year 2950, dark days of floods, war, famine, and devastation are over, but the world has been reshaped forever. Terraforming on Venus and Mars, tech implants allowing for seamless access to the Internet-like CN-net, genetic modification to enhance beauty, government-sponsored anti-aging treatments, and strictly regulated population control are the new normal under the world's new government, One Gov. Felicia Sevigny grows up blindly believing her life is her own until she discovers, for reasons unknown to her, she has been blacklisted from having a baby. Felicia has made a name for herself as a skilled fortune-teller, and her life changes the day Alexei Petriv, a high-ranking member of the Tsarist Consortium, a shadow organization set to take One Gov down, walks into her shop and demands a reading. In return for a promise to remove her blacklisted status, Felicia agrees to help Alexei in his quest to take power from One Gov. Their attraction is immediate, but Alexei's plan is dangerous and unpredictable, and someone from Felicia's past threatens their plans, and their lives. Cerveny's first novel in a planned trilogy mingles romance and science fictionthink Nora Roberts meets Neal Stephensonand is certain to satisfy audiences of both genres.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)